Memory and Murder

Thank you for your thoughtful article about Professor Daniel Reisberg’s role as an expert witness in the Samuel Lawson murder trial. I write with a correction: I am not one of Mr. Lawson’s attorneys. Rather, in his case I am the attorney for a group of college and university professors who have appeared as amici curiae to advise the Oregon Supreme Court on issues relating to eyewitness identification. Similarly, Bronson James ’94 is the attorney for another amicus curiae, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. As it happens, Bronson and I are cocounsel on another murder appeal, the death penalty case of Mike Washington Jr., which is currently being briefed in the Supreme Court. The criminal defense bar in Oregon is full of Reedies, who I think are drawn to this work because it demands skepticism, fearlessness of controversy, good research and writing skills, diligence, creativity, and compassion.